I’d say it’s rather common from what I see. Making new accounts for every launcher/store becomes a pain fast just because of the sheer number of those that exist.

The family sharing thing could very well be to encourage people to remain on the platform, I doubt that it is done just to provide a better experience.

The existance of Proton and the focus on Linux is just a backup plan for them. Sure, the material reality is that it is improving gaming on Linux for everyone, but I would keep that in mind, there is monetary incentive for them to do this, specially since Microsoft can become a walled garden whenever it wants to.

Besides they are not single handedly creating a market for Linux, this ignores all the work that was being done before Valve joined in, and ignores everything else going on too. They are a very big reason why, no doubt, but they aren’t the only one. If they were truly serious about it all, much more money could be invested on the Linux side and Valve could be advertising it, but they aren’t, the closest you get is the Steam Deck and that isn’t even available in most of the world.

The problem is that any time somebody other than Valve makes a game store, the only selling point for it is “you can’t play this game if you don’t download our store.” Nobody ever tries actually making something good.

Even if they did, which I doubt is gonna happen, Valve is a de facto monopoly.

No matter how much money Epic throws at the issue, they still don’t really compete with Valve. Other solutions like GOG and Itch.io are also not able to compete, and these last two are actually somewhat good.

That’s the thing, you identified an issue, we constantly hear bad and scary stuff about China all the time, that’s western propaganda trying to turn China into the enemy so whatever the west, mainly the US, wants to do, becomes justifiable.

You don’t need to live there to know, at least partiatly, the reality of what goes on in the country nor it’s international relations. I’m not from the US, but I do know all those things I just cited in my last comment. All you need are good sources. You can start by studying how China handles its international relations. You’ll quickly realize that China doesn’t threat, embargo or invade other countries.

If you are genuinely interested you can learn a lot by visiting Lemmygrad and Hexbear, there are communities there to ask for information, and as long as you’re wanting to learn, you will be welcomed.

Also, Xi Jinping is not insane at all like the media likes to portray him. The statement is too broad for me to tackle any specific thing, tho.

I don’t think China cares about human rights very much. And I would not be surprised if people gets killed and made to disappear if they are inconvenient.

Again, very broad statement, what human rights and what you mean by this? This probably comes from more propaganda led disinformation.

Also, China is a massive country with 1.4 billion people. Do you really think we wouldn’t have proof of people being repressed, killed and disappearing? The people there aren’t isolated from the internet, they can access beyond the restrictions easily with VPNs which are common, it would be easy to show this stuff to the rest of the world.

Protests happen all the time in China and people critique the government, just like basically any other country.

If you want the perspective of a foreigner living there, I recommend the youtube channel Felipe Durante, he speaks Portuguese but the auto translate on youtube should be good enough, at least for english.

Fucking hell. This isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact that the US is the enemy of the world. The US funds coups, destabilize, install military dictatorships, invades and bombs countries and it’s the only country in the world to drop a nuclear bomb on people, and THEY DID IT TWICE.

Stop making “wHaT iFs” in your head and actually look at the reality of what China does. It’s not even comparable.

This fucker gets on my nerves, and to think I once agreed with something he said when I was a lib. There needs to be more leftists in the streaming/gaming space, specifically ones that are willing to take on this sort of bullshit and expose it for what it is to a broad audience. Every space we are not in is a space these privileged right wing grifters are occupying and shaping young peoples minds.

This video was tough to get through, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I really appreciate comrades Aleksa and Alex showing this bullshit for what it is, my only criticism is that they weren’t harsher on it. Still, what the actual fuck? How can the original video even be produced in the first place? From the racist thumbnail to the actual unhinged content on the video, it is just completely absurd. Fucking hell, homeless people aren’t even human to these guys, they are just content. And it has 7.5M views, I’m just gonna keep to myself what I think these guys deserve.

What aren’t they racist towards? Lol

The only issue I have with them defederating from grad is that I can still see their comments, but can’t tell them to fuck off :(

You say that with the moral presumption that “censorship is bad”, when in reality it is just a tool. Every single country does it, there is no value in the way you are treating it. The US wanting to ban TikTok falls into the same category. If Brasil, my country, decides to ban twitter in the coming days because Elon is trying to mess with us by not banning users that are breaking the law, it would be censorship, but it would also also be sending a message to Musk and the US that we won’t accept this kind of shit.

Besides that, like the person you’re replying to already said, VPNs are very common in China, the government does not give a fuck if you want to access the parts of the internet that are banned there.

They’re reactionary trots and politically irrelevant. UP and the PCB are the two decent ones.

Don’t just lie to me, I can just scroll up and see what you wrote and the order the comments were written in.

Lie my ass, I’m literally not the one that said that, at the fucking least look at the profile you are quoting for fuck’s sake.

They didn’t say that at all, go re-read the comment thread. They said ‘most Brazilian communists are unfortunately imperialists’. You read the rest into it, and you leaped to the assumption that your camp was within the “imperialist” camp immediately, which they never even suggested. Like you just knee jerk assumed you were being attacked by that comment, and if you feel that way maybe you should do some introspection on why because it’s a valid critique from what I can see.

Most communist parties in Brasil are alligned with imperialism, in part or as a whole. But PCO is grassroots communism, no academic bullshit or consessions for the burguersie.

You really never interacted with PCO militants have you? It’s always this same attitude of them being the correct ones implying everyone else is a imperialist dog, which this person did, while defending bullshit like this, and labeling everything “identity politics”. Maybe if they didn’t align with the far right so often, I wouldn’t come here with assumptions, assumption those that I was right about in this very post. Just look at the chain of comments I linked above, I literally provide proof for everything I claimed there.

I’m glad they were participating in some actual protests, that’s good. It cannot be denied though that they are run in an unprofessional manner if their website is down for 5+ months and they don’t update social media materials for 2+ years. Brazilians all have phones. They all have the internet.

Look at their Twitter and Instagram accounts, they are active all the time. Again, YOU are the one claiming their website is down for 5+ months. I don’t know for how long it has been down, it could be a few hours, a week or months, stop just claiming stuff without actual proof, how hard is that?

Here, I’m gonna link it for you: Instagram, Twitter.

being “the better party” you are using to bludgeon the party Freudian mentioned

I didn’t do that and never intended to do. The only one that came here boasting about a party being the “only good one”, truly antiemperialist etc., was that person you mentioned. I just called them out on their bullshit.

Now, for that protest I mentioned, here are two news pieces I found: https://averdade.org.br/2023/12/pm-fascista-prende-presidente-da-up-em-sp-por-lutar-contra-privatizacao-da-agua/ and https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2023/12/13/o-que-senti-foi-medo-militantes-presos-em-manifestacao-na-alesp-contra-venda-da-sabesp-falam-apos-soltura.

There’s also this video talking about it, but it’s quite lengthy. It’s all in portuguese.

I don’t know, I’m not from UP. When I search on google I get pages from the end of 2023. I get the skepticism, but you are making bold claims about them.

And who said that’s all they do? You’re the one claiming that, show proof that is the only thing they do. I don’t know much about UP, but they were actively protesting against the privatization of water in São Paulo and had members being beaten by the police and jailed.

Oh, just fuck off.

I didnt defend him, i gave context where you took it away. If you agree or disagree is up to you

Said context: “I think the Nazi should have a Nazi party recognized by law” and “If a guy wants to be an anti-jew, I think he has the right to be”

I said I wouldn’t comment again, but damn, you are actually defending Monark, lmao. Ok, I’m just reporting this.

“Leaves so much out of context” and it’s just PCO’s own journal saying exactly what I said in it, sure.

Yeah, don’t know what happened to UP’s website, it looks like there are mentions of Palestine in it, but because it’s down I can’t see what it was. Here’s a news article about them being pro-Palestine and against Israeli occupation.

There’s also this tweet from a thread they did.

I don’t get your point about electoralism. As far as I know, they are a revolutionary party. Disputing elections doesn’t mean they believe in the system. If anything it can serve as propaganda.

Can you say exactly what you want proof for?

Literally any claim that you made in your comments in this thread, which you made a bunch of.

???

You’re just being purposefully obtuse, I already said that by treating all these oppressed people’s struggles as “identity movements” you’re are belittling and being disrespectful, but you clearly don’t care. By labeling these struggles as “identity driven” you are using the same wording and tactics the alt right uses.

I do agree that most of their fight goes hand in hand with proletarian causes, but no marxist in the world would claim thats the front and center of the cause. Marxists fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat, thats it

I didn’t say it IS front and center, but that it SHOULD be at the forefront for any serious working class movement. Women, Black, LGBT and Indigenous liberation should be a focal point of any mass movement. There’s is literally no dissociating one from the other, these fights all go hand in hand when fighting capitalism and imperialism. But I’m repeating myself yet again.

Im not painting anything. They were homophobic there. Does that make the “whole Black movement” bad? I dont think so.

Yes, you are. The way you are wording this, which you just did again, is that the whole black movement is being homophobic, if that was not your intention, you should have pointed out where it started, by whom, and how the broad movement talked about it and approached it. I asked for proof and you provided none yet again.

This is gonna be my last comment here in this thread, I’m done having to repeat myself.

I should have been more specific and said freedom of speech absolutism. I know being able to speak freely like that is important, but I’m purposefully criticizing PCO here. The same party that defended Monark, a famous Brazilian Youtuber and Podcaster, when he said that there should be a Nazi party in Brazil, not only that but the same party that criticized a samba school for defiling the image of a colonizer, saying that what they did is wrong and against our history.

Still no proof of any of the claims you made, no matter how bold they were.

If you think you made your point, i did not understand it.

My point is that you are are being reactionary, which I stated multiple times already.

Movements based on identity are identity movements, im sorry to tell you that. Thats not criticism, thats caracterization. If you think its bad to be called identitary, then its on you.

Here you come with this bullshit again. What “identity”? It’s always you PCO people that comes with this claim, again diminishing the struggle of the oppressed throughout the decades. You want to oppose the rampant liberalism present in LGBT, Black and Feminist movements? Sure, that’s great, but don’t fucking belittle people and the movements while you’re at it.

Marxism is about class and class strugle, wich is based on economic positions. They are different things. Sometimes they agree, sometimes they dont

And what class do the majority of LGBT, Black and Women are again? What do they fight for, and what discrimination do they face and from whom? Their fight is part of the fight of the proletariat and should be front and center to the liberation of the working class.

And you didnt read it correctly, or maybe i didnt made it clear enough. PCO disagreed with the researcher, who said Zumbi de Palmares was gay, but stood for his right to say so, even defending him when the black movement wanted him (the researcher) cersored

You didn’t make it clear enough on the original comment. It made it seem like PCO stood by the homophobic guy. But since I couldn’t find anything about any of this, besides the claim that Zumbi could be gay, what are the sources for your claims? You’re painting the whole black movement as bad with the way you are wording this.

Defend your point, dont try to censor me lol

Literally no one is “censoring” you, get a grip. I’m telling you to stop pushing this bullshit, that’s all.

Im not inside your head, point out what you think

Already did on my last comment.

Before it was cool = before usa capitalism decided it was profitable

How so?

You’re literally tossing everything as “identity politics” and comes claiming “free speech absolutism” and that other parties are aligned with imperialism and needs me to point out how that is reactionary? Really? Your condescending way of referring to LGBT people, Black and Indigenous people, Feminists and everyone else you might deem fit into the “identity movement” list, is not enough?

All you’re doing here is tossing all the work and struggle of oppressed people into a nice box that you don’t like just to diminish it, all while not backing any single claim you made.

And the free speech part, like come on, you literally admitted the party stance was to side with the homophobe because “muh freeze peach”, are you for real?

Yeah, get out with this shit. Stop trying to push PCO here.

Lots of accusations here and your use of “identitarian movements” and “freedom of speech” with the example you used speaks volumes already. Also what’s with the “defending gay people way before it was cooler”, and "before it was infiltrated by CIA agenda points? This all just smells extremely reactionary.

Sorry for being ultra-late, I just managed to finish the first chapter now. I’ll most likely be able to comment on the, already existing, second chapter thread before the third one is posted. I just want to leave my thoughts registered here.

What did you think of this chapter? Is there anything new you learned? Anything that really activates those almonds, gets the noggin joggin’?

In general I think this chapter was great. I already knew about most of the stuff talked about towards the end, mostly because of all the research I did when I first suspected I could be autistic, but it was great reading something actually so well written. I also loved the examples of so many stuff in the first half of the chapter, since I go through most of that all the time, but I always find it difficult to put it all into words. It actually helps me to talk about it with my therapist. It also helped me realize more things about myself that I didn’t realize was an autistic thing, and that I also couldn’t put into words too.

Are there any passages that really stuck out to you? Something you think warrants deeper discussion or really crystallizes something you were struggling to express or share?

“Autistic burnout is a state of chronic exhaustion where an Autistic person’s skills begin to degrade, and their tolerance to stress is greatly reduced.” - I think I might be suffering from this for a long time now, I’m not sure and it’s something I need to talk with my therapist. But it’s great to have such a concise explanation, the very little I’ve searched about this previously always left me kind of confused.

“I believe that Autistic people have the right to define who we are, and that self-definition is a means of reclaiming our power from the medical establishment that has long sought to corral and control us. Our deviance from the norm doesn’t have to be the core part of how we understand ourselves. We can push for social norms to be widened, until we reach the point that Autism is viewed as a neutral fact about a person’s being, on par with needing glasses or having freckles. As we make major gains in public awareness and advocacy, we will begin to occupy a less disabled position in society. But we’ll still all be Autistic. Accordingly, we shouldn’t let the view of Autism as an impediment shape how we see ourselves or determine who belongs among us.” - I think this passage is great in and of itself. The only think it lacks is the tie in with how this fight is intertwined with a capitalist mode of production. But it’s good nonetheless.

Any certified “literally me” moments that touched you?

There was way to many moments of euphoria where I couldn’t help but genuinely laugh because it was literally me. Though there’s one passage I would like to cite here:

“Autistic people, on the flip side, don’t rely on knee-jerk assumptions or quick mental shortcuts to make our decision. We process each element of our environment separately and intentionally, taking very little for granted. If we’ve never been in a particular restaurant before, we may be slow to make sense of its layout or figure out how ordering works. We’ll need really clear-cut indications of whether it’s the kind of place where you sit down and get a table service, or if you’re supposed to go to a counter to ask for what you like. (Many of us try to camouflage this fact by doing extensive research on a restaurant before setting foot inside.) Every single light, laugh and smell in the place is taken in individually by our sensory system, rather than blended into a cohesive whole. To cope with unpredictability, we analyze our experiences for patterns, and memorize rule sets: if the waiter says X, I reply with Y. When something unexpected happens, we have to carefully sort out how to respond. Too much change may cause us to become really exhausted, or to freak out.”

Anything you hope to explore further in upcoming chapters?

Mostly how our relationship with trauma usually goes, masking itself, how to deal with it and how to unmask, specially because I believe I’m on the point where I’ve being wearing it for so long I don’t know who’s underneath it anymore, and more detailed examples of the struggles we tend to go through.